


freefall

by Medie



Category: Heroes - Fandom
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-23
Updated: 2010-02-23
Packaged: 2017-10-07 12:25:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/65136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Medie/pseuds/Medie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Typical, he thinks as he falls, the one time he decides to be self-sacrificing, Peter has to go ahead and ruin it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	freefall

**Author's Note:**

> written for [](http://yahtzee63.livejournal.com/profile)[**yahtzee63**](http://yahtzee63.livejournal.com/) for the Me Meme

He loses sight of Peter somewhere over the Atlantic, feels his brother yank free of his embrace just before Nathan finds himself spinning backward in a freefall. Peter yells something he can't quite make out as he races the other way.

Typical, he thinks as he falls, the one time he decides to be self-sacrificing, Peter has to go ahead and ruin it.

He stops his downward spiral, bringing himself up sharply to look skyward. He doesn't have to wait long, the detonation lights up the night sky. Safe from its effects, he hovers in mid-air as he tries to decide. Peter can survive this and he'll keep telling himself that as long as it takes to believe it. Meeting Claire saw to that.

Claire.

Nathan's gaze goes to the East Coast, waiting beneath his feet. Somewhere down there, his daughter is waiting and he doesn't quite know what to do next. Find Peter, yes, make sure he's okay, but beyond that there's Claire. His little girl. The thought makes him frown, she's not that, he lost his chance at that and he's almost relieved that he did. Whoever she would have been if he had raised her, he's not sure that she would still be the cheerleader who saves the world. With their mother's input on everything, he's not even sure how Peter managed to be so goddamn selfless except, maybe, just to spite her.

Pete always did love pissing her off and maybe that's really where Claire got her fire. The spark of determination that sent her careening out a window, risking everything and damning the consequences, didn't come from shaking pom-poms and screaming "Go!" at football players. Nathan thinks she takes after her uncle but that makes him picture Peter in a cheerleading outfit and he laughs, not missing the edge of hysteria on the sound.

He can fly, his daughter's an invulnerable cheerleader, his little brother almost obliterated half of Manhattan and God only knows what his mother's planning. If there's anyone who deserves to be hysterical, he thinks he'll be at the top of that list.

Nathan starts down again, looking over his shoulder for the sign of movement that might be Peter, Claire's still down there and he needs to see her and know she's okay. He hasn't given her much in her life but he wants to know he can at least give her this, a chance at some kind of life. It may never be normal, and god he just wishes, but it will be a life. Considering what they just almost had, it's better than the alternative.

He wants to tell her that but she's gone by the time he lands in the plaza. Whisked off to God knew where by her father and he can't blame Bennet for that. The man wants the same thing he does and that's Claire; safe, happy, and out of the line of fire. They can't make her the happy, naïve cheerleader from Texas anymore, but for now they don't have to. Bennet's already given her everything Nathan couldn't, if there is a way back to that life, he will find it.

Nathan knows it should be odd that he trusts a man who essentially kidnapped his child but he does. Whatever forces conspired to keep Claire away from him, it might have been the best thing for all concerned.

The wind rushes past his face as he takes flight again, going in search of his brother. Maybe they saved the world when they saved the cheerleader, but not just when Peter saved her from Sylar.

Maybe Bennet and his mother did it when they stole Claire away.


End file.
